Report on the Activities Developed by Dr. Gabriel Cwilich During his Visit to Argentina in the Framework of the Cesar Milstein Subsidy (which gives financial contributions for transfers and stays between one month and one year in Argentina)
I visited several institutions in Argentina between April 26 and July 28, 2019. This is a brief summary of the activities and results of my visit.
San Luis: (April 26 to May 18)
- I visited the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Physical Sciences of the National University of San Luis and the Institute of Applied Physics (INFAP) of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).
- I taught two graduate courses as part of the PhD program of the Department of Physics. “Introduction to network theory” was for doctoral students from the provinces of San Luis, Córdoba and Mendoza as well as some researchers and post-docs from the Department of Physics. The more advanced course, on generating functions and advanced mathematical methods in networks, was intended for local students and researchers who attended the previous course. Both courses were approved by the University as admissible courses for the PhD program in Physics.
- I gave an informal talk about the mathematics of complex networks for the members of the group of statistical mechanics and surface chemistry modeling led by Dr. Antonio Ramirez Pastor, and I have continued my collaboration and previous discussions with that group on the subject of “jamming” and percolation in networks, and this has resulted in the first recent joint publication, which has recently been accepted by Physical Review E, a peer-reviewed, scientific journal, published monthly by the American Physical Society. “Random sequential adsorption on Euclidean, fractal and random lattices” was authored by P.M. Pasinetti, L.S. Ramirez, P.M. Centres, A.J. Ramirez-Pastor, and G.A. Cwilich.
- We also made advances in analytical work on exact results of “jamming” of k-mers in Bethe lattices. We have prepared a first draft, on which I will continue to work after leaving the group.
- I gave a general talk of dissemination for the entire University with a high attendance of professors and researchers from the area of science and artistic areas of the University on the topic “Science and contemporary theater: a symbiotic relationship?”, based on my work in New York on the subject of interactions between science and art. In this sense, I have also established a relationship with Dr. Silvana Spagnotto from the Department of Physics in a project she coordinates with more than one hundred plastic artists from San Luis who will prepare works on each of the elements of the Periodic Table in celebration of the sesquicentennial of the creation of the periodic table. I will participate in the curatorial work of this exhibit. I was also interviewed on the radio program “Locomotive” on FM 97.9, a radio station of the National University of San Luis.
Buenos Aires: (May 19 to July 22)
- The base of my activities was the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, which is also headquarters of the Institute of Physics of Buenos Aires (IFIBA-CONICET). I met with visitors and participated in the regular life of the department (meetings, seminars and so on) during all that time.
- I had several informal discussions about my work and mathematical techniques Dr. Claudio Dorso and his students of his group, and we evaluated the possibility of continuing a collaboration since his group and mine have a common interest in epidemic processes and the use of network theory in the evaluation of the efficacy of vaccination strategies and the difficulties posed by the existence of recalcitrant anti-vaccinators in the expansion of an epidemic. In this context, I hope to invite Dr. Dorso to my department to present his work and explore possible future collaborations.
- I attended all the activities of the StatPhys 27 — International Conference on Statistical Physics held from July 8 to 12, 2019. I presented my work in one of the sessions and collaborated informally in some aspects of the organization of the conference.
- Also during my visit, I had discussions with Dr. Federico Vazquez of the Institute of Calculus (also of the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales – Universidad de Buenos Aires) about our common interests in consensus-building models and the Axelrod model, on which we both worked.
- I also attended activities at the Cultural Center of Science (C3) at the Technological Scientific Pole, and in particular I held meetings with its director, Dr. Guadalupe Diaz Costanzo, and some members of her team to explore the possibility of activities of interest to both, particularly in the area of theater and science. A more specific public presentation aimed at people from the scientific and artistic communities that we were going to make in August had to be postponed due to difficulties in the agenda, but we hope to be able to schedule it in an upcoming visit.
Córdoba: (July 22 to July 28)
- I visited the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (FAMAF) of the National University of Córdoba, and the Enrique Gaviola Institute of Physics (IFEG-CONICET) that operates in that faculty.
- In particular, I had extensive discussion with the members of the Networks group, including Drs. Orlando Billoni and Juan Perotti, and their postdocs and students. His group and mine share an interest in network decimation processes, and strategies to defend them, and we have been able to establish areas of common interest for possible visits. In this context, we are trying to arrange for Dr. Andres Chacoma, one of the members of that group, to come to YU for several months under the auspices of a Fulbright scholarship. The corresponding invitation has already been issued by Yeshiva University.
- During my visit I presented a talk for the entire Faculty, sponsored by the Department of Physics, about “Complexity and vulnerability in networks.”
In summary, my visit has been a deeply productive personal and professional level, due to the number of ties I established and re-established that will undoubtedly contribute to my future work and much more intense possibilities of interaction with groups of Argentina in the future.
I also hope that these activities have also been beneficial for the institutions that received me so graciously in the three places I visited and to which I am deeply grateful.
And from now I want to thank all those who made my trip possible, in particular Mr. José Forestieri, who at all times helped me patiently with all the associated logistical problems and contributed to a more productive stay.
